Making Adjustments
by Emerald Embers
Summary: Sometimes everything starts to make sense. Nuala/Abe, Johann/Abe, Hellboy/Liz


It started out... well, where everything starts out. The beginning. An easy and immediate camaraderie, the simple joy of having someone else who actively enjoyed more intellectual pursuits. Certainly the other members of the BPRD had their strengths and weaknesses, and none of them could be called stupid, but generally the others tended to dislike research. Johann loved to read, though, loved to learn, and while Abe was a little puzzled as to how Johann read without eyes, he let the thought slide; as oddities went, for the BPRD a man who could read without eyes was of little consequence.

Then Nuala and Nuada swept through his life, breaking all the rules he thought he'd follow to the end of his days, turning his world upside down, and for a time he had eyes for no one else. Nuala became his life, his every waking thought; he understood Hellboy and Liz more than ever, but more than that, he finally had someone who could read him as he had always read others.

She was beautiful in life and he would have done anything for her.

But it was a life cut short by her own hands.

.

After they left the BPRD, forming their own group, he had Johann to sympathise with over the sudden lack of budget; the abandoned leisure centre forming their base had a generously sized pool but it was nothing like his beloved tank, and he ached to be able to read freely again. The local library was geared towards dissatisfied middle-aged housewives, and there were only so many times he could read a tragic life story or sweeping nautical romance before he began to wish he could somehow smother himself in the pages out of utter boredom.

Johann had his own difficulties; having to make repairs to his outfit with basic tools, and teaching the others to weld in case he was ever rendered incapable of doing the repairs himself. Hellboy with a blowtorch was a fearsome thing; Liz scarcely any better. Abe himself struggled because he had to take breaks every few minutes to shower, his skin drying out all too quickly with the exposure to intense heat, and it was a little frightening to consider that if he should ever be forced to repair Johann then he had better have access to a shower or open body of water, else they'd both be in trouble.

.

He didn't expect to find anything like Nuala ever again, and was right in thinking so, but it did not mean he had become something frigid. Hellboy forgave him after a while for the betrayal over Nuala, largely because Liz was happy to point out with a fireball or two for emphasis that yes, Hellboy would have done the same for her. Almost had, in fact - Abe had not been there to witness, but he'd heard the story of how close Hellboy had come to ending the world for her.

And Johann had a peculiar relationship with the world at large, seeming more interested in observing it than interacting with it for the most part. Given his lack of a real body, it seemed only logical he should feel that way.

.

Mealtimes were an odd affair given the bizarre proportions of everyone's dishes; Hellboy still ate mountainous quantities of pancakes, and Liz was swiftly catching up with two mini-Hellboys to feed; by comparison, Abe's plate looked miserly.

And Johann, of course, didn't eat. This didn't stop him from joining in at mealtimes purely for the discussions and deeply inappropriate jokes for a dinner table, but it was peculiar to be surrounded by two people who ate their food by the ton and one who just didn't eat at all.

Bit by bit, they managed to increase their budget; people might still look on them as freaks, but Johann's skills with exorcism and Hellboy's skills with general ass-kicking made it easier to start building up a base; Abe nearly wept for joy at the first delivery of _factual_ books he hadn't read, and once they had internet access set up, it was almost impossible to go through a day without finding a new case actually _worthy_ of their attention.

Admittedly that might have also been somewhat due to gaining access to the BPRD database online, but it was hard to feel sympathy for people who had not only demanded any 'freaks' they met hide themselves from the world, but were foolish enough to employ the sort of administrators who let people use the password "password".

Johann agreed it was a toss up between 'hilarious' and 'reprehensible' what the government got away with.

.

He hadn't honestly given anything further much thought until Hellboy and Liz were away on leave - the advantage of being self-employed - and he and Johann were left guarding the base. Hadn't had the chance to; he'd grown used to talking to all three during dinner, or whichever two remained if there had been a fight of some sort. He hadn't thought he'd notice anything different one on one.

Johann sat across from Abe as he ate his dinner, and despite the lack of eyes, Abe still felt the weight of Johann's gaze; found eating more and more difficult until he was at last forced to stop. "What is it?"

"You are a beautiful creature, Abraham Sapien."

Abe flushed and pushed his dinner away before looking up. "Thank you."

.

Not long after, Abe closed his eyes and let the wisps of Johann's true form whisper over his body, telling him things he wouldn't have believed without Nuala to guide him in the first place. Telling him he was beautiful; desirable; that he could be loved for what he was.

Without Nuala he was walking a slower path through life, and it wasn't the one he'd wanted; he'd still give anything to have her back.

But with someone like Johann at his side, the slower path wasn't unbearable.

.

The End


End file.
